Teaching Economics in the Schools: A Review of Survey Findings

The authors review and contrast the findings of a 1981 national survey of economic education at the precollege level and 15 state surveys conducted at about the same time. The picture that emerges is disturbing: instruction in economics tends to be minimal (or nonexistent) for many students, and teacher training in economics is limited. Curriculum structure, teacher training, and the development and use of materials are interrelated problems facing economic education.     

大学生考研的社会支持网浅探——以西北民族大学2010届考研学生调查为例

人类生活在社会大背景中,不是作为单独的个体存在,而是和其他社会个体相联系。个人从社会和他人行动者那里获得的支持的总和构成社会支持网。利用西北民族大学考研学生社会支持利用度调查,从社会互构的理论视角出发,运用统计调查的研究方法,考察考研学生社会支持网络的构成要素,包括物质性支持、情感性支持和社会支持的利用情况,总结出学生获取社会支持的渠道以及运用社会资源的能力和成效。结果表明,在考研过程中考研学生主动开发有利于自身发展的社会支持的意识;在内化了社会支持意识之后,群体主动寻求并且开发对自身有价值的社会支持。     

Economic Education in Korea: Current Status and Changes

The authors describe key aspects of precollege and undergraduate economic education in Korea. They show that precollege students seem to have low economics literacy due to problems with the curriculum and insufficient training of teachers. At the undergraduate level, they show that economics departments have more male students than female students and that the employment rate for economics majors is lower than for business majors. They hope to draw more of Korean economists' attention to research initiatives in economic education.     

创新研究生教育工作 促进高校后备干部队伍建设

通过分析研究生教育与高校后备干部建设的相关性,并呈现中国研究生教育中所存在的问题,提出从创新研究生教育管理的视角,全方位地提升研究生的能力和素质,以促进中国高校后备干部队伍的建设。     

水利专业课程设计和毕业设计教学改革浅析

课程设计和毕业设计是各工科院校培养和提高学生应用知识能力的重要手段,也是培养创新意识和创新能力高素质人才的重要途径。目前,水利专业的课程设计和毕业设计存在着设计形式简单、教师指导困难、设计质量下降等问题,需要采取建立完整设计教学体系、强化指导教师实践教学水平、改善设计教学条件、调整毕业设计时间等有效措施进行改进。     

Undergraduate Coursework in Economics: A Survey Perspective

Survey results from a large sample of economics departments describe offerings for principles courses, coursework requirements for economics majors, and program augmentations such as capstone courses, senior seminars, and honors programs. Findings are reported for all institutions, and institutions are subdivided into six different categories based on public or private control and the highest economics degree offered. The coursework required for the economics major typically consists of ten courses, five in a required core and five electives. The most conspicuous curriculum change over the past 30 years is the rise of econometrics as a required course, now mandatory at about half of major programs. The authors estimate that about 40 percent of students who matriculate as first-year undergraduates take at least one economics course before they leave.     

Publication Performance of Economists and Economics Departments in Turkey (1999–2003)

This is the first study evaluating the publication performances of economists and economics departments in Turkey. The international (article) publication performance of Turkish economic departments in general is found to be rather poor. There is a wide gap in particular between the top five universities and the economists affiliated to them and those outside the top five. The paper also provides evidence in favour of private higher education. The publication patterns of economists in Turkey are shown to be similar to those of their counterparts in the rest of the world.     

A Student Learning Inventory for Economics Based on the Students' Experience of Learning: A Preliminary Study

The authors present the initial development of a student learning inventory (SLI) that is specific to economics. This approach, which is based on the student experience of learning (SEL) literature, emphasizes aspects of prior knowledge in the learning history of entering first-year students. Preliminary insights from a first SLI suggest that on entry to university, students show considerable variation in their perceptions of what economics is and what economists do. From the SEL perspective, such variation affects student learning. It is argued that continued development of an economic-specific SLI may result in a better understanding of students' learning engagement with economics and ultimately assist instructors in better understanding student learning difficulties and increase student success in first-year economics.     

Public Finance,Public Economics,and Public Choice: A Survey of Undergraduate Textbooks

The changing scope and approaches in the public finance courses as reflected in a spectrum of undergraduate texts are reviewed. The major texts are examined for content, difficulty, and ideology.     

Economics Goes to Hollywood: Using Classic Films and Documentaries to Create an Undergraduate Economics Course

The authors describe an interdisciplinary approach to teaching economics that uses a powerful contemporary medium, the motion picture, to establish the context for teaching elementary economics concepts. The plots and subplots in many films can be used to illustrate problems and issues that are amenable to economic analysis. They suggest how these films can be sequenced to create a general studies course for nonmajors.     

研究生教育中的知识产权问题及对策思考

探讨了研究生教育中存在的种种知识产权问题,分析了其危害性,试图从研究生的培养过程、学术评价的导向、对学术不良行为惩处不严、未注意培养研究生的基本学术道德和学术素养4个方面追溯问题产生的原因,在此基础上提出解决研究生教育中知识产权问题的相应对策。     

Some Reflections on the Teaching of Economics and Commerce in a Developing Country

The author, a teacher of economics and commercial subjects in Papua New Guinea which recently became independent, reports on the difficulties encountered in teaching these subjects in this developing country, where education of the western type is still associated in the minds of many with an aura of “cargo-cult” thinking. Other problems are the lack of textbooks in the language of the country, and the fact that the traditional beliefs of the majority of students run counter to principles of modern business and economics, making for a lack of even the most elementary economic understanding. Thus, the author believes, the transplanted course now being taught in Papua New Guinea cannot achieve the objective of providing basic economic understanding.

Mr. Smyth also suggests that the teacher “should be concerned with searching out those aspects of the traditional culture fhat can be used as ‘spring boards’ into a more complex study of the modem economy.”     

Attitude Sophistication and Effective Teaching in Economics

Little attention has been given to the measurement of changes in attitudes and beliefs resulting from instruction in economics. This deficiency is met by Mann and Fusfeld who relate attitude changes to growth in students' knowledge (cognition) and to characteristics of both students and instructors. The findings from this research suggest a conflict among the goals of instruction. They also imply greater persistence of changes in attitude than of changes in knowledge.     

The Status of Econometrics in the Economics Major: A Survey

In this article, the authors describe the place of econometrics in undergraduate economics curricula in all American colleges and universities that offer economics majors as listed in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges 2010” guide (U.S. News & World Report 2009). Data come from online catalogs, departmental Web sites, and online course syllabi. About one-third of the schools require econometrics of all students majoring in economics, about half require it of none, and a sixth require it of some, but not all, economics majors. Among universities with economics PhD programs and liberal arts colleges, almost all those ranked in the top 10 require it. Below the top 10, there is little correlation between ranking and econometrics requirements. Liberal arts econometrics classes are much more likely to require research projects than their counterparts in universities.     

试论中外艺术设计研究生教学模式与创新能力的比较

设计艺术学要面对广阔的设计市场,要为当代的设计文化、设计实践和设计产品的发展提供有力的理论支持。通过与国外艺术院校的教学模式的科学分析和比较,发现我国艺术设计研究生培养模式的缺陷,完善教育体制及创新人才培养的独特理念,提升本民族艺术设计创新人才的发展潜力和实践创新能力。     

Foreign Students and Graduate Economic Education in the United States

Of late, over half the Ph.D.'s awarded in economics in the United States have gone to foreigners. At the same time, time-to-completion of a Ph.D. has risen. The presence of many foreign students in graduate economics programs may provide some insight for this longer duration. This article explores this relationship and offers an explanation for the large number of foreign students studying in the United States.     

Field Experiments in a Course on Behavioral Economics: Nudging Students Around Campus

In experiential education, the student learns through experience by observing a concept or phenomenon and applying this knowledge in a real-world context. A research project conducted by undergraduate students at a U.S. private liberal arts college is described in this article. The project provided opportunity for students to think about their decision-making processes, compare them to existing literature, and apply this knowledge in examining their own hypotheses through primary data collection on campus. While the research design's simplicity ensured that the project could be completed in time for a final grade and sacrificed lecture material in favor of feedback opportunities, this behavioral field experiment was a rewarding experience because of students’ enthusiasm and their ability to defend and think critically of their own ideas.